Our People

Our People

Ed Rennie

Former Head of Virtue Programme

Ed joined ResPublica in August 2014 and headed up the Virtue Principle which, alongside Prosperity and Society, will guide ResPublica’s workstreams for the coming period. The Virtue principle will develop research projects on how to inculcate culture change to establish ethos, character and equal dignity at the heart of our businesses, institutions and as the basis of individual flourishing and vocational fulfilment.

Before joining ResPublica Ed worked for Emily Thornberry MP and Jim Dobbin MP and was a Labour Councillor for Perivale. Prior to this he worked for the campaigning solicitor Imran Khan, taught religion in secondary school and worked as a wine merchant.

Ed grew up in London but has family roots in Wiltshire, Cumbria, Glasgow and Bath. He has particular interests in participatory democracy, the disconnect between rural and urban life, prison reform, restorative justice and tackling homelessness.

Ed is a support line volunteer for the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC), a leading thinker in Blue Labour, a founding member of the Catholic Voices media project and a blogger at The Tablet.

COVID-19: Are we truly free or merely enslaved to ourselves?

‘Through discipline comes freedom’. Over two thousand years ago Aristotle warned that freedom means more than just “doing as one likes”. Ancient Greek societies survived...

Airtight on Asbestos – A campaign to save our future

On the 24th of November 1999, the United Kingdom banned the use of asbestos. Twenty years later and this toxic mineral still plagues public health,...

Rationality & Regionality: A more effective way to dealing with climate change | by Hamza King

Liberalism relies heavily on certain assumptions about the human condition, particularly, about our ability to act rationally. John Rawls defines a rational person as one...

The Disraeli Room
What are the Implications of proroguing Parliament?

During his campaign, Boris Johnson made it very clear that when it comes to proroguing Parliament, he is “not going to take anything off the...

ResPublica’s submission to CMA

Download the full text of the submission On 3rd July 2019, the CMA launched a market study into online platforms and the digital advertising market...

The Disraeli Room
Productive Places | WSP and ResPublica

On Wednesday 31st October ResPublica and WSP hosted a panel discussion in Parliament to launch WSP’s Productive Places paper and debate its findings. The report...

ResPublica’s Response to the Autumn Budget 2018

The 2018 Budget delivered by Philip Hammond was the first since 1962 to be delivered on a day other than a Wednesday, and was moved...

ResPublica Response to changes to the National Planning Policy Framework

The Government’s housing announcements on the 5th March were the first substantial change to the planning system since the Coalition reforms six years ago. The...

Food poverty: Time to lift the veil?

A century on from Charles Booth’s famous Poverty Map of London, accurate information on poverty has never been more important. So the findings of...